BERLIN (MNI) – The German government on Friday acknowledged that it
won’t be able to meet its timetable to have the European permanent
bailout fund ESM and the EU fiscal compact fully ratified in Germany by
July 1.
“This won’t be possible,” government spokesman Georg Streiter said
at a regular press conference here, pointing to the announcement by
German President Joachim Gauck that he planned to delay signing the ESM
and the fiscal compact bills after the parliamentary approval.
The German Constitutional Court had asked him to wait until it had
decided on preliminary injunctions against the two bills, Gauck said on
Thursday.
Both houses of parliament are scheduled to vote on the ESM and the
fiscal compact on June 29. The Constitutional Court would start to
examine the bills only after that date.
German Finance Ministry spokeswoman Silke Bruns said at the same
press conference that it is solely up to the court how long it wants to
deliberate on the preliminary injunctions. “Yet, in the past there have
been proceedings which went very quickly,” she reminded.
In any case, the ministry is “not worried” by the court case
against the two bills, Bruns added.
In other remarks, Streiter said that there won’t be any decisions
coming out of today’s meeting of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French
President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Rome. The meeting is solely
for an exchange of views, he said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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